04-26-2017, 10:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-26-2017, 11:16 AM by Mark Reich.)
You are Welcome, Mr. Jan. Thank You for this interesting discussion!
I would assume that mounting an anvil on a buried post is a great idea if you don't have a concrete floor. I would imagine you'd lose a lot of efficiency if the base was sitting on a dirt floor. You'd have a hard time keeping the base from walking around on it's own as well, but not on a buried post!
I've never heard of wet forging, and I'm pretty darn familiar with traditional Japanese bladesmithing.
I have no idea what could be gained from a wet hammer. I'm sure it's not to keep a hammer cool. That's not only unnecessary (hammers Never get hot), but somewhat counterproductive. Any extra heat loss from your work piece is just wasting the energy it took to heat the steel.
The only benefit of soaking a hammer head I can think of would be to tighten a loose fitting handle, but that doesn't make much sense either. There are much more effective ways of doing that.
Edited to add;
As for weight ratios for hammer and anvil, I can tell you my power hammer uses compressed air to drive a 110lb hammer onto a 650lb anvil. The thicker the concrete the hammer sits on, the better. Some go so far as to cut a 4' square out of the floor, dig 2' of dirt out, then fill the hole with concrete to mount the hammer to. This also isolates the jarring vibrations of the hammer blow, so you aren't vibrating your whole shop.
My slab is big and thick enough that I don't have much problem with that. The only exception being my knee mill. I'm going to bring it to town. I have enough space in one garage for my mill and a nice metal lathe with plenty of room for a car too.
I would assume that mounting an anvil on a buried post is a great idea if you don't have a concrete floor. I would imagine you'd lose a lot of efficiency if the base was sitting on a dirt floor. You'd have a hard time keeping the base from walking around on it's own as well, but not on a buried post!
I've never heard of wet forging, and I'm pretty darn familiar with traditional Japanese bladesmithing.
I have no idea what could be gained from a wet hammer. I'm sure it's not to keep a hammer cool. That's not only unnecessary (hammers Never get hot), but somewhat counterproductive. Any extra heat loss from your work piece is just wasting the energy it took to heat the steel.
The only benefit of soaking a hammer head I can think of would be to tighten a loose fitting handle, but that doesn't make much sense either. There are much more effective ways of doing that.
Edited to add;
As for weight ratios for hammer and anvil, I can tell you my power hammer uses compressed air to drive a 110lb hammer onto a 650lb anvil. The thicker the concrete the hammer sits on, the better. Some go so far as to cut a 4' square out of the floor, dig 2' of dirt out, then fill the hole with concrete to mount the hammer to. This also isolates the jarring vibrations of the hammer blow, so you aren't vibrating your whole shop.
My slab is big and thick enough that I don't have much problem with that. The only exception being my knee mill. I'm going to bring it to town. I have enough space in one garage for my mill and a nice metal lathe with plenty of room for a car too.